I have a mostly-love, slightly-hate relationship with Novik’s retelling of European fairytales (or her brand-new fairytales, which this novella is). On the one hand, man, can she tell a story. Even if I’m annoyed by the main character, or meh about the generic Northern European worldbuilding. I still totally get hooked into the main character’s dilemma and want to see them succeed by the end. Novik knows how to keep just the right tension going on her plot yarn to knit a well-shaped story.
On the other hand…she doesn’t seem to be able to shake off the trope of the abusive man redeemed by (usually) a woman’s love. I’ve written about this before, what a damaging trope that is, particularly for the vulnerable young audiences Novik’s work is pitched toward. And for better or worse, Summer War falls smack into the pattern I’ve outlined above. Celia is a simultaneously neglected and spoiled princess with emerging magical powers who, in a fit of pique, curses her older brother never to find love. That she instantly regrets it doesn’t help anything: her brother leaves the kingdom to work out his sexual frustration on the project of bashing dragons into submission; and, she doesn’t know how to control her new powers anyway. By the time she figures it out, with the help of her heretofore ignored middle brother Rorick, she finds herself ensnared in a plot to preserve the peace between her kingdom and the bordering Summer Lands, peopled by beautiful, immortal, and often cruel fae.
How she gets herself out of that dilemma is complex but fair—it’s an earned happy ending…with the lingering bitter taste of the burden placed on Celia (and, without spoiling too much, other characters) to love and forgive abusive men back to mental health. I’m not sure at this point Novik has what it takes to stop doing this trope: I guess the best I can hope for is to see it reversed—where an abusive woman is loved back to health by a self-sacrificing man. Or, maybe I’ll just quit reading her books, which is a shame because she really knows how to write a good story.
The Rookery 